How Forgiving Should We Be of Others?
This week asks the question in two directions at once. First about your own life — should you always forgive the people who hurt you, and what does it cost you either way? Then about all of us together — should the public forgive people who make serious mistakes, and what does a whole country do about wrongs that happened before anyone alive was there? On Thursday, the discussion is yours to run.
Reading List
Read and annotate the required pieces in the Discussion Board before Wednesday's seminar. Two of them you read on your own; the third we read together in class. If you need a PDF, check Canvas or the Discussion Board itself.
Required (Discussion Board)
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa — Britannica
- Forgiveness Can Improve Mental and Physical Health — American Psychological Association
- What Other Cultures Can Teach Us About Forgiveness — BBC Future (we read this one together Wednesday)
Optional Extension
- The New Science of Forgiveness — Greater Good Magazine. Read up to the "Learning Forgiveness" section.
One-Week Plan
Here's the shape of the week. Your guide will set the exact timing for your section.
The Week Begins
Get your reading done in the Discussion Board before Wednesday. Post a comment on what you read, then paste that comment into your notebook — there's a page waiting for it.
Free Write, Then Open the Data
You'll write for five minutes on two questions, then talk about them briefly:
- In your own life, should you always forgive people?
- Should the public forgive well-known people who make mistakes? What should be done about things that happened long ago?
Then we'll look at the first set of data slides together.
Before we start, three things to hold onto all week: everyone in the room arrives with different experiences, so this topic lands differently for each of us. Be careful and respectful about religions, places, and cultures. And try to see every side of the situations we discuss, not just the one you'd pick.
What to work on this week: listen and respond to your classmates directly — to them, not just to the room — and ask your own questions. Push yourself to imagine how things look from someone else's position.
At the end of class you'll reflect as a group, then set one goal for Wednesday and Thursday and say it out loud. It can be about speaking up, thinking harder, listening better, or making room for other people.
Read Together, Then Discuss
Free write (5 min): think of a time you treated someone badly and were forgiven for it. How did that feel?
We'll read the BBC Future piece on forgiveness across cultures together, look at the next set of data slides, and open up the discussion.
Before class ends, you'll note the big themes that came up and any questions you're still sitting with.
Forty-Five Minutes, Run by You
This is your discussion. For the first 45 minutes your guide stays out of it unless something really needs them. Two questions to get you moving:
- What does forgiveness actually mean to you?
- What counts as forgiving someone? Does it take a real conversation, or can it happen quietly?
How to make it work: use the readings and the data — point at them directly when you can. Listen, give people room to finish, and respond to what they actually said. Don't raise your hand; just come in. On Zoom you'll talk over each other sometimes. When that happens, let the other person go and take your turn after.
The last 15 minutes are for looking back at how the conversation went: what was strong, what was weak, whether anyone led it, whether anyone got left out, and whether anyone pulled a classmate in. Then think about your own week — did you work on listening and responding? Did you try to see it from someone else's side? Did you hit the goal you set on Tuesday?
Score Your Own Week
Use the rubric at the back of your notebook to score your participation, and write down why you gave yourself that score. Be honest — this is about your own read on the week, not a grade you're negotiating.